Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has declared the ecclesiastical authority of the Diocese of South Carolina vacant and has backed a faction within the diocese that is seeking to fill the “vacuum” created by the suspension of Bishop Mark Lawrence.

The loyalist “Transitional Committee” has also declared the South Carolina Standing Committee to be vacant and has formed a “steering committee” to act in its place.

On 11 Nov 2012, the steering committee announced that it had taken charge of the diocese. “We write to assure you that The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina is continuing,” they said, noting they had formed a “steering committee of faithful Episcopalians” to “reorganize our continuing Diocese over the next few months. This committee will serve as the broad-based group in the Diocese that communicates with the Presiding Bishop during this period when the Diocese has no functioning ecclesiastical authority.”

The loyalist faction, writing in the name of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and acting under its seal, has called a diocesan convention for 8 March 2013 to “begin the work of selecting a bishop, a new standing committee, and forging ahead with our missions and ministry.”

The names affixed to the document for the group claiming to exercise the legal authority of the diocese, a South Carolina corporation, were:

Two retired bishops living within the jurisdiction of the diocese, The Rt. Rev. John Buchanan and the Rt. Rev. Charles vonRosenberg were listed as the group’s “Episcopal Advisors”.

Here’s an ad these people took out, once again illegally using the diocesan seal, in a couple of South Carolina papers.

No ecclesiastical trial. No court case, never mind court decision. Mrs. Schori wants Mark Lawrence’s head, Mrs. Schori will have Mark Lawrence’s head and damn any stupid racist, sexist, “homophobic” and bourgeois concepts like legality which get in her way.

Some people might toss around the phrase “Episcopal pope.” But that’s unfair to the Chair of St. Peter. As ruthless as some of its unworthy occupants sometimes were, there were at least procedures to be followed. There seem to be none whatsoever here.

If a tiny, leftist minority in some diocese wants a traditionalist bishop out, Mrs. Schori will be only too happy to oblige them. If Mrs. Schori wants you professionally dead, you will, in a very short time, be professionally capped in 815′s Lubyanka.

So call Mrs. Schori an Anglican Robespierre or an Episcopal Lenin if you want to. Just don’t insult my intelligence or my Savior by expecting me to refer to Mrs. Schori, the organization she heads or the rest of the Episcopal left as fellow Christians.

Which brings me to South Carolina’s traditionalist Episcopalians. This may violate every principle you claim to possess but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, don’t take this lying down. Take the fight to them; Bishop Lawrence hasn’t been formally or legally deposed so this group has obviously been using the diocesan seal illegally. You have nothing to lose so make them pay a price.

Someone also might want to alert my gracious lord of Durham. You’ll recall that among other things, the allegedly right-of-center Justin Welby told TEO’s House of Squishops:

I have found some myths demythologised. For example the myth that TEC is only liberal, monochrome in its theological stand, and the myth that all minorities of view are oppressed.

If Welby hears about South Carolina (and about all the rest of Mrs. Schori’s dictatorial moves, for that matter) and starts prattling on about “dialogue” or “reconciliation,” you will know that the Anglican Communion is officially dead. And if you insist on remaining connected to it, what happens to you is your own fault.

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head(Ezekiel 33:1-4).

65 Comments to SLIMEBAGS III

unreconstructed rebelNovember 12, 2012

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has declared …

Pretty much says it all. My prayers are with the good folk of South Carolina.

FishermanNovember 12, 2012

You need a warning on that link before people click. The visual effect is disturbing.

God bless the REAL Diocese of South Carolina and welcome to our REAL Church.

Bill2November 12, 2012

Lenin? I was leaning towards Stalin. And you’re right. I must have missed the trial. Did it happen last night after the football game? Inquiring minds want to know….

Seriously, have these clowns ever been more “the ends justify the means?”

TregonseeNovember 12, 2012

Welcome to the New Episcopal Church, much like the New America.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

They haven’t followed even their own new canons, much less the valid ones which South Carolina recognizes. Did the TEC House of Bishops meeting deposing Lawrence occur? And yes, there’s no sign of due process anywhere.

People may as well leave now, because sooner or later they also will come under scrutiny and are liable to be removed without cause or due process.

So far as I know the parishes listed as cooperating with this effort own their own properties and are free to leave Bishop Lawrence’s jurisdiction and affiliate elsewhere if they choose. The attempt to take the rest of the properties in the diocese is indeed slimy.

SC Blu Cat LadyNovember 12, 2012

Katherine,
Those parishes may very well own their own properties. I don’t know. However not all parishes in the diocese filed the quit claim deeds given by the diocese. These TEC loyal parishes may not have filed theirs. In fact, some parishes have such statements on their websites that they have not filed theirs. St Stephen’s Charleston comes to mind. If not, they are the ones who may lose their property to the very leader they say they support.

The clergy and parishioners can leave the diocese and affiliate with whomever they wish. However, as the diocese is self-insuring, those clergy who decide to remain in TEC may need to start looking elsewhere for health insurance.

JohnNovember 12, 2012

The beginning of the end for Bp Lawrence.

WhitestoneNovember 12, 2012

All for the sake of homosex – when Scripture, science and statistics stand unequivocally united against it. With 44 times the incidence of HIV and 46 times the incidence of all other STDs, increased incidence of mental health problems, depression, violence, suicides, physical injuries, cancers, etc.

Same illegal M.O. as in Fort Worth and San Joaquin. Here is hoping that the leadership in the real diocese have the intestinal fortitude to make these quislings pay for their evil deeds.

The time for sweetness and light is now over.
I see Bishop Buchanan has abused the hospitality shown to him by Bishop Salmon and Bishop Lawrence. He will have to answer for his actions.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

SC Blu Cat Lady, that’s an interesting idea. The dissident parishes may not have filed their quit claim deeds because they knew the plan was to try to get the assets of all the parishes of the entire diocese through this chicanery.

bobNovember 12, 2012

well, the bishop could always ACT like one an excommuincate the rebels who are setting up a parellel diocese. Behave like a bishop and he might be treated like one. I know no one ever gets excommunicated in PECUSA. Change that.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

With reference to who’s next, the various bishops who have filed amicus briefs in secular courts can expect to be “deposed” next, and attempts made to take property from their dioceses and parishes. You can’t be a “moderate” with Schori & Co. You must either abdicate your conscience and submit fully or be run out. “Tolerance” and “inclusion” are buzz words which are not put into actual practice in TEC.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

If you want to get the full flavor of how duplicitous Schori and TEC have been, read this report. This process is dishonest to the core, and it is ongoing purely because Bishop Lawrence objects to the “provisional” same-sex marriage rites passed by Convention. You cannot any longer object to anything General Convention does, or you will be driven out. This is a totalitarian organization. People remaining in it who think they can survive as “moderates” are fooling themselves.

Michael DNovember 12, 2012

Seems to me the Diocese of South Carolina has declared the ecclesiastical authority of the Presiding Bishop vacant, at least in their domain.

This is the beginning of a much bettr phase for Bishop Lawrence and the faithful.

But just at this moment Schori stood up and, casting a peculiar sidelong look at Lawrence, uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard her utter before.

At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Lawrence, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and they were after him. Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase. Lawrence was racing across the long pasture that led to the road. He was running as only a pig can run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped and it seemed certain that they had him. Then he was up again, running faster than ever, then the dogs were gaining on him again. One of them all but closed his jaws on Lawrence’s tail, but Lawrence whisked it free just in time. Then he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.

Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn….

Paula LoughlinNovember 12, 2012

Time.To.Bring.That.Woman.Down.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

Paula, God will take care of That Woman in His good time. What she’s doing is bringing her organization down. She is making it clear to all under whose leadership she acts, and she is under judgment.

Bill (not IB)November 12, 2012

Mark,

Great use of a piece of “Animal Farm”, but I have to take exception to one aspect of it.

+Lawrence wouldn’t have run away from the dogs.

Paula LoughlinNovember 12, 2012

Not Stalin. Not Lenin. No. The one you want is Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin.

SandyNovember 12, 2012

I think it is interesting the of the 649 members of the forum, only 3 are listed as members of the steering committee. Some have same last names but…
I wonder how many of the 649 are still alive.

Well,Stalin would probably have liked the “no trial” bit. He would have been all, “You mean I can just shoot them? Cool.” But let’s face it. KJS was elected to be a hammer, and a hammer she will be and hammer is what she shall do. She’s responsible, and at the last accountable, for her actions, as we all shall be on the great and terrible day. But so will be all those who abetted her election, knowing full well what they would get. She may be the tip of a spear, but the shaft includes most of the House of Bishops. Rude jokes may commence.

JFKARNovember 12, 2012

[Yawn]

Michael DNovember 12, 2012

Sometimes Schori seems like a villain from a gothic novel. It stretches credibility that anyone could be this fixated on power and desctruction of adversaries.

CarolynPNovember 12, 2012

Michael D – I agree. It’s almost as if there is an end game being played that we cannot even fathom.

FishermanNovember 12, 2012

Narcissism

DacamaNovember 12, 2012

I just spoke to a person on that list. He is a member of my Church which has chosen to stay in TEC.

I told him I hope his efforts fail and fail miserably. I no longer belong to that Church as of this morning.

LaValletteNovember 12, 2012

The Anglican/TEC myth of the glorious and majestic gift of “living together in tension”, always “prayerfully” of course, is again exposed for the hollow meaningless phrase it always was. Its modern expression being the Progressive leftist “Our way or the highway” through the automatic operation of the 815 “Court of the Star Chamber”. Due process? What a silly archaic question! Its the principle of the always construed “ab ore tenus”. It is a reversion to and modern affirmation of the method of how that church came into being in the first place. (cf St John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, St. Thomas More)

FuinseoigNovember 12, 2012

Whatever about suspending the bishop, surely this cannot be legitimate by the canons in regard to the Standing Committee?

They’re not even pretending anymore, are they? And this is another reason I’d hate to be Archbishop of Canterbury: I’d be perfectly happy being Pope, because I could always point to my red shoes and big hat and go “I’m the boss!”, but being Archbishop of Canterbury means anytime you try to impose discipline, you’re told “That’s not how Anglicanism works!”

And I really do hope someone lets Bishop Welby know about this stunt, so he will have his eyes opened.

KatherineNovember 12, 2012

The cynic in me says that Bishop Welby is too busy trying to suppress those who hold to the traditional clergy orders in the CofE to bother himself with this business in the USA.

mithraxNovember 12, 2012

So…..TEC isn’t a hierarchical church eh?

midwestnorwegianNovember 12, 2012

John – I don’t know about that…but I would advise the PB to avoid grassy knolls for the interim.

Lakeland TwoNovember 12, 2012

Sitting here in Diocese of Central Florida… knowing we’ll be targeted, too. Both of us L2 know it’s a matter of time. Planting seeds while we can. Watching to see how CFL leadership will handle it. Been rather quiet, actually.

Don JanousekNovember 12, 2012

Why are these people even trying to remain part of the episcop homosexual cult? What would be the purpose in staying in it? Why would any Christian want to be part of it?

If the homosexual Metropolitan “Church” announced that I was to be banned, I would certainly not protest about it.

Fuinseoig
You don’t need a Pope to enforce discipline and doctrine. What you need is Orthodoxy. We have no Pope, and although there have been the usual minor and temporary schisms over disciplinary canons there has not been a major doctrinal schism since Rome left the church.

Clelia CaseyNovember 12, 2012

As a now-leaving member of the Church of the Holy Communion mentioned above, I know that all snakes in the grass do not reside in Schori’s offices. The rector of Holy Communion, after supporting Lawrence’s positions for more than three years to his parish, has decided that “schism is more serious than heresy” (a direct quote) and is leading the remaining sheep in support of the erstwhile “loyalist” diocese.

Yep, The end is near for all the antics of 815. Remember Bob Duncan and how Kate was going to take him down.. The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh has 102 parishes and we got ourselves a first rate Arch-Bishop. They never invite Kate to GAFCON and missing out on Lambeth seems to be not great loss

AlanNovember 13, 2012

Anyone that’s surprised by this may also be interested to hear that water is wet. You heard it here first.

What blows me away is the arrogant way in which Madame Schori does not even follow her own canons.

There is no where in the Constitution and Canons of TEC that gives the Presiding Bishop the authority to declare a duly elected Standing Committee null and void. You will not find that as one of her enumerated powers. I don’t even believe that the revised Title IV disciplinary canon allows her that authority.

TEC is no more hierarchical than the United Methodist Church. They are going to find that out in the SC Courts. That is, of course, provided that the real Diocese of SC has the courage to take them on.

KatherineNovember 13, 2012

Dacama, Clelia Casey, my sympathy to you, and my respect for doing the right thing in this situation. May God guide you to DioSC parishes which will be the right places for you.

I noticed shocked reactions online from people who had thought Holy Communion was solid. It’s especially sad to see a priest turn on a dime and repudiate his previous teaching so suddenly.

unreconstructed rebelNovember 13, 2012

Methinks Schori is trying to position TEo as the Established Church of the US. After which any christian not embracing the secular ethic is to be driven underground.

You Don’t Understand™. TEC lives into the tension — it’s absolutely a non-hierarchical church, a mere federation of autonomous dioceses, when it comes to heresy and the promotion of Teh Ghey™ – because, who are we to tell anyone else how to worship or what to believe? And schism is so much worse than heresy.

Then, it magically transforms into a hierarchical church with respect to the quashing of orthodoxy and/or there is a question of property, where the operating philosophy is ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

Simple, no?

William TigheNovember 13, 2012

Clelia Casey and Katherine,

The case of Holy Communion, Charleston, is even more curious, as a year or more ago they were seriously exploring entering the Catholic church through the then-forthcoming Anglican Ordinariate; indeed, the Rector and most of the Vestry made a visit to Our Lady of the Atonement parish (the first Anglican Use parish in the world, established in 1983).

The statement “schism is more serious than heresy” (which one usually encounters in the form “schism is worse than heresy”) is a quintessentially modern piece of c**p, and one which I have always imagined to have been forged in some “Affirming Catholic” (or earlier “Liberal Catholic”) infernal theological smithy (which has produced equally specious arguments in favor of the pretended ordination of women and of homosexual pseudogamy). Anyone acquainted with the history of the Early Church and the practice of the Church Fathers would realize immediately what a brazen piece of revisionism such an affirmation is. To see a clergyman whom I have always taken for an orthodox Anglo-Catholic (and who talked like one when I walked into the church on Wednesday of Holy Week 2007 to look around, and, upon encountering Fr Sanderson there, we had an hour’s chat) emit such a threadbare rationale for remaining in an apostate body that hardly merits the description “Christian” is bizarre beyond words.

William TigheNovember 13, 2012

I should have written my first paragraph, above, as follows:

The case of Holy Communion, Charleston, is even more curious, as a year or more ago they were seriously exploring entering the Catholic Church through the then-forthcoming Anglican Ordinariate; indeed, the Rector and most of the Vestry made a visit to Our Lady of the Atonement parish in San Antonio (the first “Anglican Use” parish in the world, established in 1983) to “suss it out” barely a year ago. Of course, I know of at least two cases when a whole congregation was about to enter the Ordinariate, when they jibbed at the last minute, as it seems (a) over issues of property ownership (the Catholic Church does not recognize or allow anything like a “vestry” to own church property, the title to which must be vested in the bishop or diocese [or Ordinary or Ordinariate])- (b) when it became obvious that the Roman Catholic Church does not in any way recognize “Anglican marriage annulments” and that, in consequence, those not negligible numbers of divorced-and-remarred members of the congregation would have to seek marriage annulments from Catholic tribunals, and that, until those annulments might be obtained (and with no guarantee that they would be obtained) they would not be able to receive communion and (c) when it was made clear that in those few cases in which church members were Freemasons, such members would have to resign and sever all connection with the Lodge in order to be received into the Catholic Church.

mithraxNovember 13, 2012

If I didn’t have debts out my ears and a failing marriage, I’d apply for the ordinariate in a flash.

KatherineNovember 13, 2012

William Tighe, that’s what I wondered about. If Holy Communion is a genuine “Anglo-Catholic” parish, not Affirming Catholic, then how on earth can they rationally exchange the jurisdiction of Bishop Lawrence for that of Mrs. Jefferts Schori? In fact, according to reports, the curate and some number of the parishioners are going to the Ordinariate, the curate leaving Holy Communion at the end of this year.

Paula LoughlinNovember 13, 2012

Mithrax, Off topic I but please know I will be praying for you.

Paula LoughlinNovember 13, 2012

Yoda at the keyboard. The above should read.

Mithrax, I know this is off topic, but please know I will be praying for you.

FW KenNovember 13, 2012

mithrax – my prayers as well.

Charles E A JohnsonNovember 13, 2012

As an aside, I just visited the ENS website…guess what? Not the first mention of the present unpleasantness in South Carolina…not even in search! Inquiring minds are plumb curious about just how underhanded and sneaky Ms. Schorri and her minions, including vanRosenburg, can be.

One other thought besides the Episcopalians having the right to govern themselves and the relative conservatives being foolish for trying to stay (but I hope the old diocese wins in court).

When the Episcopalians voted for women’s ordination in 1976, many Anglo-Catholics thought Canterbury, Pope-like, would dump the Episcopalians and recognize them instead, so they started what are now the Continuing Churches. As Canterbury’s not the Catholic Church (even though the Catholic Church founded it), of course they didn’t get their wish.

Anyway… the Anglo-Catholic dioceses (parts of the Midwest and parts of Texas) should have quit like the ACNA dioceses did, but they didn’t.

Ministers denying the faith? Old news. Been around since the ‘Enlightenment’. OK, the denomination’s still Christian on paper even though it’s not enforced. Didn’t start a split.

Women’s ordination? Theological/ecclesiological (us: the church doesn’t have the power to change that). Arguably natural-order/primal but fact is it didn’t scare many Episcopalians into leaving and a lot of high churchmen including in the former Anglo-Catholic dioceses eventually accepted it.

With regard to Holy Communion – apparently the Associate Rector and 5 families are continuing their journey to Rome.

With regard to “Homosexuality/same-sex pseudo-marriage: beyond the churchy to the natural order, primal. Sh*t got real. Dioceses quit like the Episcopalians deserved.” I think it’s a bit more simple (maybe). I think even the Catholic Church agrees that Scripture does not resolve the WO issue. But you can’t get jiggy with the LBGTQ Agenda without setting Scripture completely aside and opening a real Pandora’s Box of other issues.

William TigheNovember 13, 2012

“I think even the Catholic Church agrees that Scripture does not resolve the WO issue.”

I doubt this, and I certainly know of no evidence that the Catholic Church “agrees that Scripture does not resolve the WO issue.” But since the Catholic Church not only does not embrace a “Sola Scriptura” view of the Bible, and in fact rejects it as heretical, such a distinction is, in Catholic terms, supremely irrelevant: the papal Motu Proprio “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” in 1994 declared that the Catholic Church has not the capacity to “ordain” women to the presbyterate and episcopate (which together constitute the Catholic “sacerdotium”), and it was later clarified that while Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is not in itself an ex cathedra infallible statement, its effect is to clarify that the “unordainability” of women is an unchangeable (the technical term is “irreformable”) teaching of the Catholic Church.

Perhaps the Catholic Church might agree “that Scripture does not resolve the WO issue” if one were to abstract the “naked words” of Scripture from the whole longaeval intrepretive matrix going back to the Apostolic Fathers that constitutes, from one perspective, “Catholic tradition,” but why any Catholic would wish to indulge in so pointless an exercise transcends my understanding.

SC Blu Cat LadyNovember 13, 2012

Was at a deanery meeting tonight. Bishop Lawrence talked for about 30 minutes and then opened it up for questions. One person asked about the use of the diocesan seal by the *loyalist* group. Bishop Lawrence mentioned that the seal of the diocese is a registered trademark of the diocese. So this group that keeps using it could get themselves into serious legal trouble. The next comment was “could the diocese issue a ‘cease and desist’ letter? Basically Bishop Lawrence said “be patient”. That may mean that the diocese is considering doing something about it but can not say at this time.

Also, Bishop Lawrence mentioned that the use of the diocesan seal was a deliberate move to confuse people. I know people who are confused by the ads. It is all a big mess but TEC brought it on themselves.

MaureenNovember 14, 2012

Mithrax — Check out the “Coming Home Network.” They can help you in a lot of different ways.

LaValletteNovember 14, 2012

“Also, Bishop Lawrence mentioned that the use of the diocesan seal was a deliberate move to confuse people. I know people who are confused by the ads”

Not an original stratagem: (maneuver designed to surprise and deceive) : close parallels with those organizations defying the teachings of the Catholic Magisterium proclaiming that they are Catholic: e.g. “Catholics for Choice” and other similar self identified “reforming groups within the Catholic Church”.

SC Blu Cat LadyNovember 14, 2012

La Vallette, Right. Hardly an original strategy. Look well it worked in Fort Worth. You think they would have learned a lesson from Fort Worth.

KatherineNovember 14, 2012

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, I can’t tell you how shocked I was to learn that some of the strong support in TEC for women’s ordination came from “evangelicals.” As I understood it, evangelicals had a very high view of Scripture. The New Testament clearly says that the early church did NOT call women to lead the congregations and taught against doing so. Scripture is “not definitive” on this issue only if one decides that women should be ordained and then goes looking for wiggle room.

KatherineNovember 14, 2012

SC Blu Cat Lady, I would expect the Diocese of SC to take legal action on the trademark infringement following this Saturday’s convention, and I think it is entirely reasonable and appropriate that the sense of the Diocese be consulted before launching. I would assume this is what the “patience” remark means. The Bishop and Standing Committee have proved themselves wise and prepared so far.

FuinseoigNovember 14, 2012

Ad Orientem, I’m not suggesting you need a pope but I am suggesting that there needs to be some court of appeal or ultimate authority in charge who has the power to make decisions in cases like this.

I was saying that, all comments about the new Archbishop of Canterbury and what he might and might not do, he has a position as head of a global communion of churches but anytime he might seek to intervene in doctrinal and disciplinary matters, he gets told he can’t do that (no matter whether he’s left, right or doesn’t care a straw about politics).

CarolynPNovember 14, 2012

The *loyalist* position regarding the seal is that they do not dispute that it is a registered trademark of the DoSC. Their position is that the Dio never left TeO, and that they are now in charge of the Dio. Their position is that Bp Lawrence and others left the Dio.
Mirrors what they’ve done here in DoFW.